CAFE LA BOHEME 6 A.M. Good Morning Mission! A bracing 46° F. after early morning rain. The weather gods are promising clear skies and sun this afternoon: a perfect day for a protest.
Students Lead the Way
Today’s statewide demonstrations of popular anger and determination mark the first mass protest in the post-crash era. Check out the number of actions so far reported. And that probably doesn’t include everything, for as noted in Beyond Chron, social networking via the internet is playing a big role in getting the word, and the bodies and minds, out to the streets. Again, the Mission meets on 24th and Mission at 3 for a march down “the Miracle Mile” to 16th for a rally then on to Civic Center.
“Scumbagalooza”: The War on Students
Legendary bank-robber Willie Sutton said he robbed banks because that’s where the money was. So where do the bankers go to cover their gambling losses? Student loans? You bettcha!
The student loan business is Big Business, generating billions of dollars for private lenders, and private collectors, lining their balance sheets with federal guarantees and subsidies (aka corporate welfare), money which Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says should go into Pell Grants for students.
The Obama Administration has called for an end to this racket, but the banks are fighting back. The biggest fight is being waged by SLM Corp. or “Sallie Mae,” the nation’s largest student loan company. Heavily dependent on taxpayer subsidies and predatory lending practices, Sallie Mae doesn’t profit nearly as much from making the loan (which the government guarantees in any case) as it does going after loan payments.
Unlike subprime mortgages, there is no walking away from student loans,no bankruptcy provisions, no statute of limitations, just endless penury. Elizabeth Warren, Obama’s surprising Consumer Pit Bull, puts it this way: “Student-loan debt collectors have power that would make a mobster envious.” It’s no wonder they’ve unleashed a “scumbagalooza” of lobbying and lies as Firedoglake’s Jane Hamsher put it, and she’s right. And who’s lobbying for students? You are. Today!
The Little Inner City School That Could
Marshall Elementary School on 15th street is a small Spanish immersion school, predominantly populated by Latino immigrant kids from low-income families. You would not expect this school population to score well on the standardized tests, but it’s slowly been improving). But when Marshall went to the East Bay to compete in the Odyssey of the Mind tournament against the wealthy privileged suburbs, not much was expected. Not only did the kids do well, they won 1st Prize! These kids should be leading the march.
Protest as the Engine of Democracy
The protests, rallies, demonstrations and other actions taking place today across the state and the nation will undoubtedly turnout large numbers of protesters. But already we hear our inner-cynic saying they won’t accomplish much if anything. Remember the demonstrations against the war in Iraq? Over ten million in 60 countries out on the streets, but we couldn’t stop the invasion. Playwright Caryl Churchill looks back on the demonstrations in 2003 and has some interesting observations about the long term effects of those actions and the role popular protest, “the engine of democracy,” has played in Britain (which we would second for America).
See you at 3 P.M. 24th and Mission.
